waka waka waka

There’s a piece in today’s Times Magazine that is so breathtakingly misbegotten that I am reduced nearly to speechlessness. I had thought of giving it a thorough, line-by-line fisking, but as blogger Steve Sailer also realized upon reading it, it simply stands on it own, a fantastic self-caricature. It is, essentially, an argument that European culture is morally culpable for the crime of reluctance to abet its own destruction. One brief quote stood out above all, and will give you an idea of the tone of the essay:

[A] hallmark of liberal, secular societies is supposed to be respect for different cultures, including traditional, religious cultures — even intolerant ones.

Ah yes, of course: to be good secular liberals we must “respect”, and welcome into our midst, even cultures that implacably advocate the subjugation or destruction of our own. It’s our “hallmark”, after all.

Complete your education here.

From reader JK comes a link to an article about a growing tension in the Persian Gulf. No, it isn’t between the Sunnis and the Shi’a, or between US diplomats and the Iraqi parliament, but between Islamic fundamentalists and those in the region who, having attracted enormous foreign investment, and having used it to build some of the most dynamic and opulent financial centers in the world, are also beginning to develop a taste for another Western export: freedom.

(more…)

The nation of Indonesia is often cited as an exemplar of a “moderate” Islamic society (though of course it has had its share of Muslim extremism and terror). It is far from a being a tolerant, pluralistic society along Western lines, however; though one is “free” to worship, only five religions are on the list of government-approved options: Islam, Catholic and Protestant Christianity, Hinduism and Buddhism. (It is no surprise, of course, that Judaism is not on the menu.)

(more…)

Sam Harris, in a recent article, weighs in on the response to Dutch politician Geert Wilders’ anti-Islamic movie Fitna, which appears to be unavailable online at the moment.

(more…)

I must apologize to the reader for the lack of variety around here lately; our little clash of civilizations has occupied me almost exclusively in recent days. I’m afraid that this post will not interrupt the streak, but it will be brief: I just want to call attention to an outstandingly informative series of posts about Islamism that our friend Jeffery Hodges has been offering over at his website, The Gypsy Scholar (as proudly featured on our sidebar). You can start with today’s offering about suicide bombing, and work your way backward through the links.